When The Pool Patrol first opened its doors in 1995 the company handled a variety of work, including pool maintenance, liner replacement, plumbing, pumps, filters, and heaters. It was approximately five years later when the company started to focus solely on automatic covers, whereby committing full-time to the product in terms of providing installation and service. Pool Spa Marketing recently spoke with Allan Horwood, the owner of British Columbia’s The Pool Patrol, to learn more about the shop’s culture, some recent projects they have been working on, how the industry has been affected by the pandemic and what he sees for the future of the business.
Pool & Spa Marketing (PSM): What makes your company unique?
Allan Horwood (AH): I think it’s the passion for the product and for the industry. It’s also the pride that we have in our work. As the owner of the company, I’m still very hands-on. The company is directly related to the person on top. When the person on top cares deeply and always strives to provide great service, I think it trickles down through all levels of the company and the employees.
PSM: How large is the shop?
AH: We have two 186-m2 (2000-sf) warehouses that act as a distribution point and service centre for auto-covers. We have an office/warehouse centre in Vancouver and a similar office/warehouse in Kelowna. We have three full-time employees at each location, plus myself to which I drift between the two shops.
PSM: What is the primary business of your shop? What secondary business does your shop also perform within the aquatics industry?
AH: Our primary business is selling and servicing automatic pool covers. As for the secondary business, we don’t want to compete against the pool builders who give us business. If you’re a pool maintenance company, we have no interest in doing pool maintenance because that same company will generally refer us when any auto-cover repair, sales, or services are needed. So, we have elected not to compete against the same people who give us business.
PSM: Does your shop perform renovation work?
AH: We solely focus on auto-covers—we’ll do major repairs including removal and reinstallation of newer units. We do mechanism upgrades, which could fall under the category of renovations; we’re literally taking a large amount of the auto-cover system out and putting another large amount of the system back in. We’re involved in renovations on pools from a consulting standpoint, where there is an older pool, and a builder is going to tear it apart. On many of these projects, an auto-cover is being installed and builders will often consult us to figure out how to do it. We do a lot of consulting work and a lot of site business.
